Tuesday, May 05, 2009

E-tivity 8

Critical Awareness on the Web
So far in this course we have discussed issues such as evaluating the sources of information you find on the Web and being aware of advertising that appears on sites such as gmail. Although I am a strong advocate of the Web as a social networking tool, communication tool and research tool (especially for language learning!!!), I say this (as I said last Thursday) with a 'grain of salt'. As you all become more and more avid 'prosumers' of the Internet, it is important to maintain a critical awareness of what you are accessing on the Web. It is important to understand the social, economic, political and other consequences of particular technology design, use and regulation both for individuals and communities. A critical approach to new technologies and online practices means that learners and teachers become aware of the power relations involved, e.g. the purposes of oppression or liberation that new information and communication technologies can bring about.

Purpose: To develop our critical awareness when accessing the Web.

Task
1: Using all of the 'skills' we have learned so far, search for definitions of the following terms and be prepared to explain them to your peers:
  • Group 1: online identity theft
  • Group 2: phishing
  • Group 3: e-mail spoofing
  • Group 4: trojan horse (in online contexts obviously!)
  • Group 5: hacker
  • Group 6: Facebook Beacon
  • Group 7: subliminal advertising
2: Prepare a 'definition' of your term using relevant language and hyperlinks. Post this definition as a comment to this blog post. If you are all in class, you can do it in class. Otherwise, you will have to work on Google Docs or a peer's blog.

3: Read this article about privacy and Facebook (a tool I see most of you use avidly!): One Friend Facebook Hasn't Made yet: Privacy Rights

4: Write a reflective blogging post: Have you ever considered what happens to the information you put on the Internet? Do you think the solution is to avoid the Internet? If not, what can you do to protect yourself? We have spent a lot of time discussing how to attribute authorship to others who have posted their work on the Web, but what about you? Consider these issues and write a blogging post reflecting on a critical use of the Internet.

Respond
:
The usual :-)

Timeline: Sunday, May 10 (task), Wednesday, May 13 (respond).

P.S. Here's a pretty good site in Italian ;-)



1 comment:

Sarah said...

Here's what you all came up with in class.

Risks using the Internet / Web:
to run into unwanted sexual, violent, illegal content
privacy violation
cloning
copyright infringement
viruses / Trojan horses
hackers
identity problems
addiction
unconscious clicking - scams
false information